A spokesman for Universities UK, which represents higher education institutions, said they too would be proposing measures to tackle the practice of grade inflation.

“It is essential that students, employers and the public have confidence in the ongoing value of a UK degree,” the spokesman said.

He suggested that changes in the sector, including greater investment in the quality of teaching and technology, could be factors in the rise in first-class degrees, alongside the fact that, as they are having to invest more in their own education, “students may be working harder to achieve higher grades”.

Tuition fees were first introduced in 1998, but basic fees were trebled in 2012.

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